Who moved Atlantis? Now it's in Spain

Can you see two rectangular structures in this satellite image? New research says they may be the remnants of two temples from Atlantis (Image: Rainer Kühne)

The fabled lost city of Atlantis may lie in a salt marsh region off Spain's southern coast, according to a German researcher.

His study, which is reported online by the archaeology journal Antiquity and has not yet been peer-reviewed by archaeologists, is based on the analysis of satellite images.

They show ancient ruins that the author says appear to match descriptions by the Greek scholar Plato.

The structures resemble two rectangular buildings and are hidden in a muddy region known as Marisma de Hinojos, near the port of Cadiz.

The study's author Rainer Kühne, of the University of Wuppertal in Germany, said descriptions of Atlantis as an island simply referred to this part of Spain, destroyed by a flood between 800 and 500 BC.

Kühne's theory is supported by the presence of the two rectangular features that match temple depictions in Plato's dialogues Critias and Timaios.

Associate Professor Tony Wilkinson, a U.K. expert in applications of remote sensing in archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, described the structures visible in the satellite pictures as "interesting".

One feature, 230 meters long and 140 meters wide, could be a "silver" temple dedicated to the sea god Poseidon; the other, somewhat "quadratic" structure, measuring 280 meters by 240 meters, could be a "golden" temple devoted to Cleito and Poseidon.

Kühne said the structures agreed with Plato's description of the temples.

"These rectangular structures are surrounded by concentric circles. This agrees with Plato's description that the temples were surrounded by concentric circles of water and earth. Even the sizes are correct. According to Plato, the diameter of the largest circle was 27 stades, ie 5 kilometers. In the satellite photos, the diameter of the largest circle is between five and six kilometres," Kühne said.

Atlantis has piqued the imagination of scholars ever since Plato first mentioned it in about 360 BC.

In his account, the Greek scholar told of a city placed in front of the Pillars of Hercules, now the Strait of Gibraltar, which flourished for more than 9000 years. It was destroyed by the gods when its people became prone to sin and corruption.

Plato said Atlantis had concentric circles of water and earth, which Kühne said matched the concentric circles in the satellite images (Image: Rainer Kühne)

Legend has it the entire city was swallowed by the sea within a day and a night under the onslaught of an earthquake and subsequent tidal wave.

For centuries scholars and explorers have searched for it. The lost city of concentric rings of water and lands has been "found" in Sweden, Palestine, Central Asia, Crete, Carthage, Mexico and Antarctica.

One recent theory equates Atlantis with Spartel Island, which sank to the bottom of the sea 11,000 years ago. The island, just to the west of the Strait of Gibraltar, lies only 120 kilometres from the rectangular structures that Kühne spotted.

According to Plato, the Atlantean capital was placed about nine kilometres from the sea on the edge of a rectangular, smooth and even plain surrounded by mountains that reached to the sea. Apart from this, the country was very high and had a steep coastline.

"Near Cadiz there is a rectangular, smooth and even plain which lies at a south coast. It is the plain south-west of Seville through which the Guadalquivir [river] flows," Kühne said.

The mountains described by Plato would then be the Sierra Morena and Sierra Nevada.

Kühne noticed that the war between Atlantis and the eastern Mediterranean countries described in Plato's writings strongly resembled that of mysterious raiders known as the Sea People around 1200 BC.

The Atlanteans and the Sea People would then be the same, according to the German scientist.

"If the capital of Atlantis indeed existed near the mouth of the Guadalquivir, then we suggest that Plato's Atlantis tale is based upon an Egyptian report on the Sea Peoples and some Greek tradition on the Athens of that time."

The report on the Atlantean city and state may refer to a Spanish city, possibly identical with Tartessos, which was probably destroyed by Carthaginians during the 6th century BC," Kühne said.